Turkey Says Sanctions to Hurt Only PKK Militants

PM Erdogan said the measures were not yet in force and he denied that Turkey had closed its airspace to flights to and from northern Iraq.

Turkey said on Thursday planned economic sanctions against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq would be targeted at groups providing support for the rebels.

Officials declined to say what the new measures would include but made clear they would not harm Turks and Iraqis not connected to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been launching attacks on Turkey from across the border.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the measures, agreed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, were not yet in force and he denied a television report that Turkey had closed its airspace to flights to and from northern Iraq.

Turkey has sent 100,000 troops to the Iraqi border, backed by tanks, artillery and aircraft, ready for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq against PKK militants there.

Diplomats say Turkey may hold fire on both sanctions and major military action for now to see whether talks in Ankara on Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and further discussions between Erdogan and U.S. President George W. Bush next Monday in Washington yield any results.

"When we talk of economic sanctions, we don't mean to cause difficulty to people living in Turkey and Iraq," Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a news conference in Ankara, striking a relatively mild tone after the tough rhetoric of recent days.

"We are targeting the economic sources of the terrorist organisation and those elements providing support to the terrorist organisation," he added.

NATO-member Turkey knows economic sanctions could end up hurting its own economy as much as that of northern Iraq, whose leader Masoud Barzani it accuses of providing shelter and support to an estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas.

NO FLIGHT BAN

Erdogan, who is under heavy public pressure to get tough with the PKK after a series of deadly attacks, denied a report by NTV commercial television that his government had banned flights between Turkey and northern Iraq.

"I hear from you that the airspace has been closed. There is no such decision," Erdogan told reporters.

Asked if the agreed sanctions were being implemented, he said: "Not at the moment."

But Babacan said flight restrictions remained a possibility.

"There have been some restrictions on flights sometimes due to technical reasons. And there may again be in the future but the target of the economic sanctions won't be the Iraqis. The target will be the terrorist organisation," Babacan said.

On Tuesday, airline officials told Reuters Turkey's civil aviation authority had denied Istanbul-based charter airline Tarhan Tower permission to fly two of its three weekly flights to Arbil, Barzani's capital, this week.

Turkish newspapers say other sanctions could include limiting traffic at the busy Habur border crossing with Iraq, curbing exports of electricity and cement to northern Iraq and clamping down on the operations of firms belonging to Barzani in Turkey.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and European Union, like Turkey, brand the group as terrorist.

The border region, scene of fierce fighting earlier this week, was quiet on Thursday. Armoured personnel carriers wound their way through high mountain passes and an occasional helicopter hovered overhead, but no clashes were reported.

In this week's border fighting, three soldiers and 15 militants were killed, Turkey's General Staff has said.